Hmm, not feeling quite so fine any more! I had to finish work early yesterday because I woke up with a headache and it just got worse and worse until I finally realised it was a migraine. My migraines usually start with handy visual effects that flag up, ‘Hello! I’m a migraine’ straight away, but of course I was probably asleep at the point where those were happening, so I missed that.) Although it was one sided, it wasn’t that bad when I woke up so I just took paracetamol. It just niggled away all morning, and eventually I thought ‘migraine?’ and took a migraine tablet. by then I suppose it was waaaaaaaaaay too late.

At about three o’clock it was getting really bad – feeling sick, couldn’t see properly out of my right eye, bad pain … definitely time to give up and go home. Fortunately hubby had the day off and was there to get me tucked up in bed with an ice pack, a darkened room and middle-sized cat (who purred so loudly at the unexpected pleasure of an afternoon snuggle that I was very glad my migraines aren’t affected much by noise – only light!)

I felt slightly better by about six and was able to eat some dinner, which made me feel better still, but still completely washed out. I didn’t do anything all evening except watch a bit of telly once the headache had gone.

Still, at least woke up this morning headache free. Just one small problem … they’re painting at work! Aaaaargh – the smell of paint is bringing the headache right back again! Not sure how long I’m going to last this time.

Interestingly I’ve got pains in my right shoulder for the first time in a while, coinciding with a migraine over my right eye. I’m fairly convinced they’re related … but the doctors aren’t!

If there’s anybody out there that gets migraines that they think are related to their RA Pain, I’d love to hear from you!

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As everything RA related has gotten under control, my migraines haven’t been back – over a year, in fact. This spring I get to start decreasing the med I take to prevent headaches. I definitely think they’re related, since I never got migraines until all the autoimmune stuff begain.

I’ve only ever had ocular migraines, which come with that bizarre visual zigzaggy rainbow thing, but no headache. Thank goodness! By the time you read this comment, you’ll have been home and back to bed, so I hope you’re feeling a whole lot better now, and that your shoulder decided to give you a break, too.

I never had migraines until the last year. It seemed to coincide with increasing my Remicade dosage, and I’ve heard that that does happen for some people. Thankfully, I’ve had so few of them that I haven’t yet gotten any meds specifically for them, but I’m thinking I probably should, because nothing helps me when they come. I’m so new at it that I’m still working on how to know when I’m in trouble.

Ooh … now isn’t that interesting! Out of interest … do you get signifcant RA pain in the obvious places that could be associated with migraine (i.e. neck and shoulders) or is it just a more general picture (RA sorted = migraines sorted)?

My migraines were just generally associated wtih the RA. With calcium deposits in my shoulder, plus a torn rotator cuff, my shoulder hurts separately from the RA and isn’t linked to any headaches. I don’t think I’ve had a migraine since starting a biologic (except when we visited my MIL, and that’s a MIL headache, not in any way related to RA ;) )

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My name is not Pollyanna and I'm not a penguin. If you'd not worked out the last bit you should probably stop reading this and seek out a psychologist.

This is a blog about me and rheumatoid arthritis - sounds like fun, huh? Well I'm hoping it'll be a bit more fun than it sounds - hence the Pollyanna part. I'm going to try to stay positive about it and play 'Pollyanna's glad game' - finding reasons to be cheerful basically.

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